Louise Smith: The First Lady of NASCAR

In the 1940s, racing promoter Bill France, Sr. was looking for ways to attract more women to the sport. What he needed, he decided, was a female driver who could handle the challenges of the track and hopefully bring more women out to the races.

Louise’s Discovery and Introduction to NASCAR 

Back in the 40s when racing was picking up pace in the US, racing promoter Bill France Sr. was looking for ways to get more women on the racing track. It wasn't long before he found the star he was looking for in Greenville, South Carolina - a woman called Louise Smith. Funny, at this point Louise had never sat in a race car. But she was rumored to be outstanding at outsmarting lawmen hot on her tails. 

France had spotted a star and invited her to run the race in Greenville. He had found his driver. Smith sat behind the wheels of a modified 1939 Ford coupe, stepped on the gas, and hit the track hard. She cleared the checkered flag and kept driving. The thing is, she had never been to a race in her life and didn't know when to stop. "They told me if I see a red flag to stop", she explained to a reporter of the Baltimore Sun in the 90s. 

A Racer Was Born

There was no looking back for Smith after the first race, she was in. Her husband, Noah, lent her no support and disapproved of her new-found love for racing. Nothing would stop her now. She borrowed his shiny new Ford to watch the Daytona Beach Road Race. But instead of being a mere spectator, she signed up to race. Her husband's brand-new car was now her dream racing wheels.

It was far from a dream ending for Smith. She crashed and wrecked the car, and took a bus back home. Fearing the worst, Smith made up a story and told her husband that the car broke down on the roadside. That wasn't going to save her for long.

Images of her spectacular crash had swept the nation and made it to the front pages of newspapers. There were pictures of Smith posing proudly with the wrecked car as if it were a trophy. News and pictures of her reached Greenville before she could.

When she told her husband the story of the car breakdown, he held out the newspaper. Her husband was furious. And a legend was born.  

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Smith would continue racing for seven years, claiming an incredible 38 wins across four divisions in that time. Her aggressive, yet impressive, driving style won her both fans and respect, although it came with a price tag; she crashed many of her cars and nearly died on more than one occasion.

In It to Win It

As the first woman driver in racing, Smith had to prove what she was made of, particularly to the skeptical drivers she shared the track with. Over time, she won the respect of the other drivers, who nicknamed her "the Good Ol' Gal." Smith was a tough competitor who raced for $100 prizes and would sometimes earn extra money for appearances.

Retirement and Legacy 

Even after she retired from racing in 1956, Smith stayed active in the sport, sponsoring cars and making public appearances. She worked with Darlington Raceway and served as grand patron for the track's Miss Southern 500 Pageant for more than a decade. She retired in 1989.

As the first woman to take the track, it's fitting that she was also the first woman to be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999. She died in 2006 at the age of 89, but her legacy lives on through the trails she blazed for female drivers.

Smith even served as inspiration for the character Louise "Barnstormer" Nash in the 2017 Disney Pixar film "Cars 3," which gives a nod to the 1950 Nash Ambassador that she was famous for driving.

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